From Normal People to Gucci Precision: Paul Mescal’s Style Evolution
It started with a chain. When Paul Mescal appeared in the 2020 BBC-Hulu adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People—shirtless with just a thin silver necklace glinting against his collarbone—he went from unknown Irish stage actor to generational heartthrob overnight. The chain got its own Instagram account. So did his legs.
Mescal was born on Feb. 2, 1996, in Maynooth, County Kildare, the son of a schoolteacher and a Garda sergeant. He played Gaelic football at the minor level for Kildare, trained at the Lir Academy at Trinity College Dublin, and landed Normal People almost immediately after graduating. What followed was one of the fastest ascents in recent cinema: an Oscar nomination for Best Actor at age 27 for Aftersun, a gladiator’s breastplate in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II and a turn as William Shakespeare in Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, which earned eight Academy Award nominations at the 98th Oscars—though Mescal himself was a notable snub in the Best Supporting Actor category.
Off the red carpet, his style became a conversation of its own. The O’Neills GAA shorts worn to the pub and the bodega. The white crew socks with Gucci loafers. The cropped tops and tiny running shorts that turned an athlete’s wardrobe into a menswear argument. He became a Gucci ambassador in 2023 and a Cartier ambassador the year before, but the looks that defined him were the ones that cost nothing: a white tee, a chain and the confidence to wear short shorts like they were couture.
On the red carpet, styled by longtime collaborator Felicity Kay, he evolved from an aloof kid in a borrowed cardigan to a man who wears custom tuxedos with the collar undone and the tie loosened—always one gesture away from formality, never quite arriving there. He is currently filming the role of Paul McCartney in Sam Mendes’ four-film Beatles series, due in theaters in April 2028. The long and winding road from Semple Stadium to Abbey Road continues.
Paul Mescal’s Best Looks
- GAA Minor Championship
- Hulu Winter TCA
- BAFTA Television Awards
- BAFTA Television Awards
- Street Style
- Gucci Love Parade Front Row
- The Fashion Awards
- Met Gala
- Gucci Cosmogonie
- Aftersun Portrait Studio
- Aftersun Screening
- Newport Beach Film Festival U.K. Honours
- SAG Awards
- Film Independent Spirit Awards
- Vanity Fair Young Hollywood
- 95th Academy Awards
- Gucci Men’s SS25 Front Row
- Gladiator II Royal Film Performance and Global Premiere
- The History of Sound Red Carpet
- The History of Sound New York Premiere
- Hamnet Photography Exhibition
- 83rd Golden Globe Awards
- BAFTA Film Awards
- 32nd Actor Awards
GAA Minor Championship
- Semple Stadium, Thurles, 2014
Before the red carpets, there was a teenager playing inter-county minor football in Tipperary. Here, Mescal is pictured mid-match, wearing a white Kildare O’Neills jersey with No. 6 on his back, mud-flecked and bent at the waist in the posture of a center back waiting for the next ball. Brady Family Ham across the chest, GAA crest on the heart.
Hulu Winter TCA
- The Langham Huntington, Pasadena, 2020
Mescal kept his debut press circuit disarmingly simple, with a black zip-front cardigan over a white crew-neck tee, dark trousers and white sneakers. Standing beside Normal People co-star Daisy Edgar-Jones, he looked like a drama student who wandered into an industry event and decided to stay.
BAFTA Television Awards
- Television Centre, London, 2020
In 2020, the actor walked his first major red carpet in an olive-grey suit worn open over a plain white T-shirt and white sneakers. The jacket’s boxy, slightly oversized cut gave it a European ease, while the sneakers pulled the whole thing toward the casual end of the formality spectrum. On the BAFTA carpet, where most men default to safe navy, he chose a muted tone that felt unbothered and modern.
BAFTA Television Awards
- Television Centre, London, 2021
A year later, the upgrade was unmistakable: Black tuxedo, crisp white dress shirt, black bow tie—the full formality Mescal had sidestepped the previous year. The fit was sharp through the shoulders and clean through the leg. This was the pivot from promising newcomer to leading man.
Street Style
- New York City, 2021
Off-duty in Manhattan, he sports a fine-striped shirt in cream and tan, unbuttoned at the collar, and tucked loosely into wide-leg khaki trousers with a generous drape. White leather sneakers and a pandemic-appropriate face mask completed the look.
Gucci Love Parade Front Row
- Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, 2021
Front row at Gucci, and dressed by the house to match, here he’s styled in a powder-blue suit in Gucci’s signature relaxed tailoring, worn over a grey open-collar polo shirt with white sneakers. The color was the standout decision here: soft, almost pastel, against the neon chaos of Hollywood Boulevard. On a night when Gucci staged a runway on the Walk of Fame, Mescal looked like the calmest person on the block.
The Fashion Awards
- Royal Albert Hall, London, 2021
A gold brocade Gucci blazer in jacquard-woven, shimmering and unmissable, was paired with a sheer nude shirt, black ribbon tie and sharply tapered black trousers. Patent-leather shoes anchored the bottom half in formality while the top half swung toward rock-star flamboyance. It was the first time Mescal reached for something genuinely bold on a red carpet, and the Royal Albert Hall was the right stage for it.
Met Gala
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, 2022
Walking the Met steps in a head-to-toe noir Valentino ensemble, Mescal adds a sparkly touch with a single diamond brooch at the collar, providing the only point of light. The silhouette was sharp and narrow, the mood somewhere between Victorian mourning and modern menace. For the “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” theme, he reached for severity rather than spectacle.
Gucci Cosmogonie
- Castel del Monte, Puglia, 2022
Mescal arrived at the house’s Cosmogonie show in a geometric-print jacket—soft greens, pinks and cream in a retro-mod pattern—tucked over rust-orange trousers belted with Gucci’s signature web stripe. White Gucci x Adidas sneakers and dark sunglasses pulled the whole thing toward an insouciant ’70s cool in front of the octagonal silhouette of Castel del Monte.
Aftersun Portrait Studio
- TIFF, Bisha Hotel, Toronto, 2022
The actor sat for his Aftersun portraits in a charcoal wool workwear jacket with utilitarian chest pockets, matched to wide-leg trousers in the same dark fabric. A plain white crew-neck tee was the only break in the monochrome.
Aftersun Screening
- Curzon Soho, London, 2022
Gucci’s maximalist fingerprints were all over this one. A double-breasted blazer in camel and teal windowpane plaid sat over brown pleated trousers and a simple white tee. Gucci x Adidas sneakers grounded the streetwear look, keeping the blazer from veering too formal. A silver watch at the wrist was the only accessory.
Newport Beach Film Festival U.K. Honours
- The Londoner Hotel, London, 2023
Navy and Breton stripes—the Frenchest an Irishman has ever looked. A clean, slightly oversized navy suit sat over a Vivienne Westwood classic blue-and-white striped crew-neck tee, with dark leather loafers finishing the base. Accepting an Artist of Distinction award, Mescal dressed the way you might for a long lunch in Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
SAG Awards
- Fairmont Century Plaza, Los Angeles, 2023
Among the most talked-about looks of his awards season, Mescal wore Simone Rocha, specifically a dark navy coat with floral crystal embellishments along the hem, layered over a deep blue shirt and cropped black trousers with black leather boots. It blurred the line between tailoring and something more decorative, and the embroidered overlay gave the silhouette a skirt-like dimension that felt deliberate and charged.
Film Independent Spirit Awards
- Santa Monica, 2023
Here he wears a double-breasted Gucci teal blazer—oversized through the shoulders, yet structured but not stiff—worn over a cream ribbed tank and wide-leg black trousers. Black boots anchored the bottom. The palette was cool and confident, the blazer’s seafoam green popping juxtaposed against the Spirit Awards’ blue carpet. The proportions were generous, giving the whole look an easy, ’80s-inflected swagger—a counterpoint to awards-season convention.
Vanity Fair Young Hollywood
- Mes Amis, Los Angeles, 2023
A tailored black Wales Bonner suit jacket over a black crew-neck tee, with black trousers and a dramatic fabric sash tied at the waist—the single gesture that elevated the entire look from standard monochrome to something far more considered. Polished black shoes caught the light against Vanity Fair’s gold-lit backdrop.
95th Academy Awards
- Ovation Hollywood, Los Angeles, 2023
Nominated for Best Actor at 27, Mescal walked his first Oscar red carpet in a custom Gucci ivory double-breasted dinner jacket over a crisp white shirt and black bow tie, with wide-leg black trousers and polished black shoes anchoring the silhouette. A single red rose pinned at the lapel was the only flourish—romantic and classic. The jacket’s generous cut and satin sheen gave it old-Hollywood weight, but the proportions were modern, looser and more relaxed than a traditional tux.
Gucci Men’s SS25 Front Row
- Triennale di Milano, Milan, 2024
The rugby legs made their Milan debut, at last. Mescal sat front row at Gucci in a pale blue oxford shirt over thigh-length white pinstripe shorts, white crew socks and black Gucci horsebit loafers. Dark sunglasses topped off the look. It was aggressively casual for a fashion-week front row, the kind of outfit that reads as either not trying or trying adeptly, and with Mescal, it was clearly the latter.
Gladiator II Royal Film Performance and Global Premiere
- Leicester Square, London, 2024
The actor stepped out for the London premiere in a black Gucci tuxedo with satin peak lapels, worn over a white dress shirt left open at the collar with a loose black tie draped untied beneath it. It was a deliberate note of undone formality that gave the classic silhouette an edge of nonchalance. Black leather shoes finished the base.
The History of Sound Red Carpet
- Palais des Festivals, Cannes, 2025
Dressed in total darkness on the Croisette, Mescal walked the Cannes steps in an all-black ensemble—black tuxedo jacket with satin lapels, black shirt, black ribbon tie with a soft jabot flourish at the neck and wide-leg black trousers pooling slightly over polished black shoes. The monochrome commitment—another Gucci number—was absolute, and the jabot detail added a romantic 19th-century dimension that suited a film about sound and memory.
The History of Sound New York Premiere
- Walter Reade Theater, New York City, 2025
A finance guy who stopped for free drinks—or an actor channeling mid-century Manhattan? Mescal arrived in head-to-toe Gucci: a light blue cotton poplin shirt with point collar, tucked into high-waisted black trousers, paired with a khaki silk Gucci tie and black Gucci Horsebit 1953 loafers.
Hamnet Photography Exhibition
- Tristan Hoare Gallery, London, 2025
Peak off-duty Mescal means a black crew-neck sweater over straight-leg blue jeans and black leather shoes—the kind of outfit you’d wear to meet friends at a pub, not walk a photocall. Standing beside co-star Jessie Buckley beneath a gilded frame, he drew no distinction between work and life, red carpet and gallery opening, in his signature unstyled simplicity.
83rd Golden Globe Awards
- The Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills, 2026
Mescal wore a black light-wool single-breasted tuxedo with satin peak lapels paired with a crisp white dress shirt from Gucci’s La Famiglia collection, a black cummerbund and custom black leather boots. Nominated for Supporting Actor for Hamnet, he dressed as a man deep into his second act, in immaculate tailoring pitched exactly where a leading man’s wardrobe should land on Hollywood’s biggest night. The cummerbund was a subtle throwback, old-school formality updated by the razor-sharp contemporary cut.
BAFTA Film Awards
- Royal Festival Hall, London, 2026
The Best Supporting Actor nominee appeared on the red carpet with girlfriend Gracie Abrams in a black Prada suit worn with the sleeves rolled up over a white dress shirt and black shoes.
32nd Actor Awards
- Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, 2026
Mescal leaned into the ceremony’s ’20s and ’30s dress code with a Saint Laurent double-breasted tuxedo worn over a champagne silk lavallière shirt—a style of high-necked, trailing neckwear rooted in 18th- and 19th-century menswear—fastened with a Cartier pin. Patent leather shoes finished the base.